This is a hard film to review and it’s taken me some time to figure out how to write this. It was nominated for loads of awards and Casey Affleck received best actor at the Oscars, Golden Globes and Baftas. The screenplay was also highly praised, yet it was not an obvious prize winner; yet … Continue reading
Filed under Oscar winners …
Celebrities Changing the World?
Here’s a piece by the brilliant Grace Dent in the i paper on the impact of celebrities opposing Trump. It’s also a lesson for politicians here, of course. When William Morris wrote “Nothing useless can be truly beautiful” he patently had never visualised an anti-Trump public service announcement starring the thinking woman’s crumpet Mark Rufallo … Continue reading
2001: A Space Oddity
It makes me feel so old to think that I can remember when this film by the master Stanley Kubrick represented the future. Seeing it now, as part of the BFI’s Days of Fear and Wonder series, and with it an incredible 50 years old, is a very odd experience. It is incredibly long, and … Continue reading
The Genius that is Steve Martin
This man is so busy and talented I needed to lie down before putting this post togetehr. It just isn’t fair on the rest of us. This is one of the funniest clips I’ve ever seen, and I have no idea how he did it, this is ‘The Great Flydini’ on Johnny Carson. Make sure … Continue reading
The Most Important Television Series Ever
Next month, one of the most amazing and drawn out television projects returns to British television. It is the series Seven Up which was broadcast in 1964, and can claim to be the first reality television series. It involved interviews with 14 children aged 7 and has followed them through their lives, so is part … Continue reading
Songs About Coalmining
I recently discovered Diana Jones and it is absolutely criminal that she is not a better known singer/songwriter. This song is “Henry Russell’s Last Words” about a man who emigrated to The States, and sent loveletters to his wife which survive. This song is about his last letter to her, written on a piece of … Continue reading
The Agronomist
I picked up this DVD when it was on sale and am really amazed that I’d never heard of it before. It is directed and partly filmed by Jonathan Demme, the Oscar winning director of Silence of the Lambs. It is the story of Jean Dominique, an intriguing, passionate native of Haiti who trained as … Continue reading
Father and Daughter
The wonderful ‘Mr Lessmore’s Flying Books’ won the Oscar for best animation, but here’s one from 2000, ‘Father and Daughter’ by Michael Dudok de Wit. It is described as a story of love between father and daughter, but I saw it as part of an exhibition at ;sHertogdenbosch Art Gallery on the subject of time. … Continue reading